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A Winner and A Tornado Watch

Randomizer.org picked the number 7 and that equates to Labbie1.... email me your address and I'll get your gift card in the mail pronto!!

Thanks to all who entered and good luck in March's Country Giveaway, which will be posted in a few days.

In the meantime, we're ushering in the early spring season with our first tornado watch until 11 pm tonight.

Hubby and I are more prepared this year to watch the sky for signs of turbulent weather. Last night we attended a National Weather Service storm spotter presentation. We've been wanting to do this for a few years. It was an excellent presentation by Chance Hayes, who works out of the Wichita NWS office. Here's a link to the Wichita Eagle, which published an article a few weeks ago with more information.

We brought home a handout from the presentation with all kinds of great web links. One of the best ones (my humble opinion) is for an Online Spotter Training Course. This takes about 2 hours, but both myself and the hubby plan to take this course. We really enjoyed last night's presentation and agreed that we both learned quite a bit. Now we want to take our learning to the next level and become trained weather spotters so that we can call the NWS with reliable severe weather information in our area, especially since we live in a rural area.

What about you? Does severe weather fascinate you - do you head for your front porch with your camera (like I do!) or do you run for the basement?! I'll be honest... I head for the closet, eventually. But it's usually at the last minute.

I know. Not very smart, but I can't help it. The photographer in me wants to get a few cool shots first!

Weather Update, 9:40 pm CST: We are safe. A severe thunderstorm passed through here earlier, but the worst of the storm is now to our east. I hope that it does not cause too much damage in southeast KS and northeast OK.

8 comments:

I'm a Kansas girl and severe weather excites me! It seems as though every time we had the possibility of a tornado while I was growing up, my mother herded us to the basement. I think my mother had enough fear that I have none!

Storm chasers fascinate me. I have to admit, I still enjoy watching the movie Twister. However, some of the most frightening times of my life were during tornado warnings and I don't enjoy that feeling.

Who knows what this year will bring in regard to weather. Weird winter.

I lived in Iowa 25 years ago, spent an hour in the celler once,yep, tornado. Lived in Houston 20 years ago, spent an hour in the walk in closet, yep, tornado, 5 miles away! Been incalifornia 14 years, still check the sky line from time to time....old habits are hard to break, though they do come in handy for spotting smoke from the wildfires....trade offs I guess.

Grew up in MO and like you, I would sit on the front porch staring at the green sky waiting for a tornado and then run for the basement.

Then, I met and married a Kansas boy born and bred and moved to KS for more than 25 years only to really understand severe weather! Man! It seemed like every storm spawned a tornado! I quit sitting on the porch (of course, I quit doing a lot of crazy things once I had a baby! :) )

We were in the middle of the F-5 tornado that went through OK, south Wichita including McConnell and leveled Andover and headed to El Dorado and the lake in 1989. Luckily, we left El Dorado and got to our home in Andover just as the sirens went off and we were all safe. It went right across the road that we had just traversed! Close call and really BAD!!!!

I saw that last night a tornado hit and damaged about 60% of a town near Topeka and one hit in Bridgeton near St. Louis which is very near the part that was hit by the tornado that damaged the airport last spring! So sorry to hear about that, but pray for all of those affected. Sure early for tornadoes this year...it's gonna be a bumpy ride!

Oh and did I mention that in 2001 my niece and I were having dinner at Applebees in Andover when the sirens went off. Large hail started--breaking out car windows--and people were heading for the cooler. What did my niece (age 25) and I do? When the hail quit, we headed to the parking lot to watch! A tornado actually formed right over our head and there we were standing in swirling wind watching! And NO CAMERA!!!!! So, maybe I am not very smart...LOL It was sure exciting though! :) We watched the tornado head off to the east toward Augusta and El Dorado...

Thankfully we got wind and rain here but not a tornado (we are right on I-70 about 45 mi east of Columbia)

Do you have a weather radio? If I knew where our radio was, I would give it to you when we are down there in May since it is set to the Wichita weather area. They are so good to have especially for those night time tornadoes!

On another note---I WON!!!! I WON!!!!! YAY!!!! Doing the happy dance and making a list of the fun stuff I am picking up at Tractor Supply when we are down there in May!!!!! YAY!!!!!! :)

I love storms, but my poor 3 yr old was so scared last night. We were in an actual tornado warning. Here's the link to my local paper with a video of the funnel clouds: http://www.hutchnews.com/Publicsafety/storm--3I just discovered your blog while writing my own post about last night. I was looking for the blizzard we had in March 2009 to show the crazy weather we have here and your blog came up as a reference. :)

The 1989 comment by labbie1, my daughter and I had just pulled into the QT at K15 and McArthur as the tornado was going through Plainview. People were running around screaming "Tornado". We went inside and I asked where we should go, the clerk didn't know, suggested the walk in cooler. Then people were asking where the tornado went. I asked the clerk if I could open the back door and look out. He opened it, McConnell in the background, large full rainbow with the tornado in the middle of it and me with no camera.A "funny" aside, on the way in I told my daughter I didn't like the way that sky looked and wanted to turn to KFDI. She refused, she didn't want to listen to no goat-roper music. After the tornado excitment, back in the van and on the rode SHE changed the station to KFDI. LOL